Freewing 80mm Avanti S Sport Jet

Motion RC is proud to unveil an upcoming member of Freewing’s jet family, the 80mm Avanti S. The world’s only officially licensed foam electric Avanti, courtesy of SebArt and its titular designer, Sebastian Silvestri, the Freewing 80mm Avanti S is poised to thrill EDF pilots the world over with its sport jet styling and powerhouse performance. Sebart’s popular Avanti S design has distinguished itself for years in the turbine format, with the largest fiberglass/wood Avanti XXL topping out at a 2.5M wingspan and 40 pounds dry! The Avanti S in a variety of sizes and powerplants has won awards in freestyle, acrobatic, sport, and other classes in competitions worldwide. Its remarkable performance and crisp handling at all speeds sets it apart as one of the most sought after sport jets in the hobby.

We’re excited to bring this elite pedigree of design and performance to the foam electric class with the Freewing 80mm Avanti S. Here are a few quick specs on this aircraft, available worldwide in Spring 2017.

We'll publish more information as we're able. The model pictured is an EPO molded production sample, not a CNC prototype. I'm editing some video footage tonight. We'll post a preview of this hot rod in action within a couple days.

We couldn't let all the scale jet guys have all the fun! Following up on the 80mm Super Scorpion, originally designed for turbine class aircraft by Aviation Design and reproduced with their permission, we've had this Avanti under wraps for a while. SebArt has collaborated with Freewing for aircraft in the past, like the twin 70mm MiG-29 and more recent 90mm F-104. Bringing Sebastian's Avanti S to the foam electric class was a natural progression.

I've flown the SebArt 90mm fiberglass fuse/build up wing Avanti, on both P-20 and K-45 turbine powerplants, and it's a sweetheart flyer. I've flown a Skymaster Avanti XL as well, and its crisp rolls, effortless knife-edge, and rock solid slow landings always stood out to me. I'm satisfied that we did this model justice in the foam electric format, and we're all excited to finish production on this aircraft and get it in the hands of Freewing dealers and their customers worldwide.

looks and flies great, apparently - wondering how you are going to have a painted canopy (instead of a clear one w/ pilot) that will not look cheesy.
that's my biggest issue with the FMS 70mm Super Scorpion, and people have modded it with a clear canopy, just looks sooo much better...
I guess in the event, Parkflyer Plastics will offer something nice

It's a good question! Fantasy sport jets are styled primarily for performance and don't always have realistic canopy proportions. Their canopies are sometimes far too long for their relative height and width, or are too narrow, or too sharp. The Avanti, Unico, Stilleto, Pirotti Rebel, Futura, and even the Stinger 64/90 fall into this category for me. There's a reason why most turbine sport jets like the Avanti paint their canopies a solid color, or if they do have a clear/tinted canopy, there are rarely pilot figures in the office. It isn't just about weight savings or internal space, but because pilots usually look a little "off"... either too large, or too small, or too narrow. A pilot sitting in the Avanti looked strange to us because in order for his head to clear the front console like a real pilot, his head needs to be large and up against the top of the canopy and it looks like he's flying the Spirit of St. Louis. If a smaller pilot is put in the office, his shoulders are far from the sides of the fuselage and he looks out of scale with the rest of the aircraft.

Practically speaking, the decision was made that a cockpit tub in the Freewing 80mm Avanti is better allocated for battery headroom to accommodate potentially bigger batteries, and benefits from the weight savings and cost of a complex cockpit tub, that would look weirdly proportioned, anyway. It might seem strange, but pilot figures and cockpits add more cost than one might suspect, and we really want to keep the Avanti a pure, straightforward sport performer. Omitting pilots and cockpits on a scale jet isn't something we'd ever do, but SebArt opted to go with the scheme shown above for his sport jet.

The yellow/white scheme above and second below is what SebArt chose for Freewing to model, including the blue opaque canopy, and we're working on a deep pearl color to really pop in the sunlight and give it just enough "flash" to make a statement while it's zooming around at 100mph. There are too many Avantis in the red/white/blue/gold "flourish" schemes right now in other sizes, particularly his most recent fiberglass/wood 90mm/P-20 version, so we all agreed the yellow is the best scheme to start. We don't have a yellow sport jet in our line up, while we have far too many red planes. If there's compelling consensus for pilots or a different scheme, there's a tiny window still open for me to try to push through a change.